Marty Jackley’s gubernatorial campaign released two closely related initiatives this morning, for agriculture and railroads. The rail initiative is all about agriculture, since it is predicated on the assumption that we need to expand our infrastructure to accommodate the expansion of “more value-added agriculture over the next eight years in the form of ethanol, soybean processing, milk production, cheese production, animal production and other industries.” Evidently all those cybersecurity specialists Jackley plans to put to work don’t need trains (but wait! Remember the old Soviet train in Goldeneye? Put those white-hat South Dakota hackers on a hardened train, run ’em around the state on an unpublished schedule, and they’ll be invincible!).
Jackley says more rail and more trains will help revitalize small towns:
Most transportation of bulk products to markets is provided by rail, and we have 1,839.5 miles of operating rail in South Dakota. Perhaps more than any other development, railroads have grown our rural communities. Small towns along rehabilitated railroads have been revitalized by the development of new industry along rail lines. Producers have also realized a higher price due to reduced transportation costs and competition for their crops. However, South Dakota has lost service on 75 percent of the 4,420.5 miles of rail that used to be in operation. This is a trend we should reverse [Jackley for Governor, “Rail Initiative,” 2018.05.03].
If Jackley really means to “reverse” the rail decline, he’s missing one key part of that reversal to rail’s glory days: passenger rail. Once upon a time, South Dakotans could ride trains from Canton to Rapid City, from Aberdeen to points east and west, and to and from lots of other depots that are now gone or repurposed. Small towns benefited immensely not just from being able to ship goods but being able to ship people by rail.
Now South Dakota is one of maybe only two states that have no intercity rail service. Maybe all those cybersecurity specialists (and lots of other modern South Dakotans) would enjoy the chance to hop a train in the morning from Aberdeen or Mitchell, ride to their meetings in Pierre and Sioux Falls, then ride the train home, enjoying supper and some peaceful online time on the rail instead of white-knuckling it through another April blizzard.
Jackley makes some good detailed points in his rail initiative (read his paragraph and bullets on building the RCP&E/BNSF Wolsey interchange! It’s good nitty-gritty policy!), but he ignores passenger rail. France, Japan, and lots of other advanced nations have splendid rail service. South Dakota should follow those nations into the 21st century by investing in modern passenger rail service.
Someone correct me, but wasn’t freeing up rail cars for agriculture a big tipping point in allowing new pipelines to be built in South Dakota? And………?
If you could facilitate high-speed data transfer and/or energy transmission lines along the rail corridors, you may have something.
It’s been a long time since I knew a RR employee, but do trains still have to creep along because the tracks are in such poor condition?
Did he forget all the rail was taken out to these small towns???its lost service because the rail has literally been torn out
Ties are gone for yard ornaments or pole barns or other uses
At least passenger rail would be lucrative and bring in tourists possibly now that would help communities
He must not like small SD trucking businesses that make their money all year long hauling the commodities from elevator to elevator
Think of it, rail travel could encourage more focus on family and less on the road. Families could travel alongside their students to the the football game, regional choir, or (here I am pandering to the webmaster) the annual Lincoln Douglas Debate tournament. Besides, the fewer distracted drivers on the road the safer we all are.
Maybe we can get Elon Musk to build the Hyperloop2 in SD
I always thought that there should be a passenger line that runs from Mpls. to Rapid City called the “Rushmore Express.” It would be a great way to encourage international tourism to the Black Hills.
On Noah’s safety point: airplanes and buses have lower fatality rates than trains, but trains have much lower fatality rates than automobiles and motorcycles.
And on Noah’s debate point: we could actually hold a debate tournament on a train.
McTaggart – one railroad company has already exploited that combination thoroughly. SPRINT (Southern Pacific Railroad Inter-communication). Take a look at were the main trunk (backbone) fiber of the entire US Internet runs – along Southern Pacific rights of way. SP even has designed a special set of cars – a train – to install fiber optics along rights of way. Fast and straightforward – no need for them to acquire rights of way or even call 811 for dig permits to install.
Yes…why are we not doing that here to connect the smaller towns and attract hi-tech business? Seems like that would be a good way to boost access.
Plus there are already companies setting up shop in the Dakotas due to the colder winters here. It costs less to cool all of those servers, and hydro/wind may provide some good access to energy. It would be better to find uses here to power jobs than to ship it out East.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-kZ81pvKpU
Where the devil you been,Doc? Nikola has agreement with Budweiser for 300 electric big rigs as of a day or so ago.
Cory,
I truly enjoy passenger rail travel. South Dakota is only one of two states that does not have access to passenger rail service, Wyoming being the other.
I would like to see two passenger rail lines, from Minneapolis/ St. Paul to Sioux Falls, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City then on to Denver and from Fargo, Aberdeen, Brookings, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, then on to Omaha, and maybe even Kansas City.
There are a couple of challenges that need to be addressed. First, the conditions of the rails in South Dakota, or in rather poor condition. They would all certainly need to be rebuilt. Genesee & Wyoming have invested over $55,000,000.00 in the western part of the line just to get the rails out of the dirt. From what I can find the cost to take bare land and build a rail line capable handling passenger travel is about $1,000,000.00 per mile. To get our rail lines up to the condition to handle passenger travel is going to take a major investment.
The question that has to be answered, is there enough of a market to justify the investment? Congress and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (dba Amtrak) has been looking to cut back the long distance train. In fact, the only non-tourist passenger service that has been making any profit has been Amtrak’s northeast corridor.
Since we had passenger air travel, rail travel is money black hole. The best way to make it work is to add something to go with travel. For example, tickets to a Viking Game and travel there and back, or to the State Fair with tickets to the grandstand show.
However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. We need to rebuild our rail infrastructure. Freight service will pay for the upgrades.
Those look to be hydrogen-powered, so they are getting their electricity from a fuel cell, not by battery charging.
Using wind energy to provide heating or cooling when it’s available for your Budweiser storage facilities…I mean your corporate computer server farm…in each of the small towns would reduce the need for batteries.
Here is how it is done in Europe, in this case, Spain. It has to be state run or it will not run. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfe_Operadora
It probably makes sense, but it seems odd that we can have all sorts of products to move but not any people. Agriculture is a big industry, but so is tourism. Are you telling me, MC, that we couldn’t boost tourism with passenger rail?
We have to be honest, that yes, there would be a boost in tourism, not as much as we might hope for.
who was the former republican atty gen (I think) who got out of office and was handed the job for which he had no experience to run a railroad in SD. that’s the one with ancient rolling stock that holds up all rush hour traffic 365 days and screams whistles all night long in rc. sold out of course
he sold out of course (no period here:)
I believe at one time there was passenger service east and west along a corridor that included Frankfort and Refield and probably went east at least to Watertown. My grandmother rode the train from Franfort to Redfield in 1921 shortly before she gave birth to my father so she could be close to a doctor. She didn’t want to be trapped on the family homestead during blizzards that were often much more severe than they are now and there were probably not any really effective means to clear roads that were most likely gravel at best.
I think the decline in rail services whether for freight or passengers, has contributed to our small towns slowly one by one nearly disappearing. I grew up near Doland until I was 16. At that point(1968), the town had about 500 residents. Our school had just built on a whole new wing to accommadate the baby boom that I was a part of. Our class had 40 kids in it which was the biggest they’d ever had. But since then, it’s shrunk to less than 200. Several area towns, Frankfort, Zell, Ashton, Turton, lost their schools decades ago. Part of that is due to “consolidation” forced on the schools by the state to”save money”. But with populations dwindling and schools being closed, the rail service lost passengers as well as freight usage. The problems just fed on each other!
The state’s conservative leadership has never wanted to invest in schools, infrastructure or much of anything unless it produced huge instant profits for corporate interests! Then they wonder why neither our population nor our economy grow! I’m not an economist but I believe to grow the economy you have to invest some financial capital and some human capital! We need to invest in passenger service as much as freight because tourism could be a much bigger part of our economy! And if passnger service was connected to Amtrak across the state and the country, it would bring passengers at least through the state to start. Then perhaps the scenic vistas and seeing buffalo and pheasants and other wildlife would attract people to visit. I think Jackley is trying to appeal to the farmers but wonder if he would seriously persue even freight servicees!